


Welcome home

by mariamegale



Series: Mariamegale's Kisstober 2020 [2]
Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Coming Home After A Trip, Established Relationship, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, baberoe are unproblematic fluffy boys in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:54:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26773243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mariamegale/pseuds/mariamegale
Summary: “What’re you doing?” Gene mumbles at him, frowning a little when Babe kisses his other cheek with soft, warm lips. It’s nice, but he wants those lips on his own, please and thank you. “C’mere.”“No,” Babe says. "Not until you get all your kisses.”“But you already—“ Eugene starts, until the Babe Logic clicks in his head. “Edward— You gonna kiss me twenty-five times?”“No, Eugene, I’m going to kiss you thirty times. You’ve missed a lot of kisses, and I gotta make up, or what kind of boyfriend would I be? Now shush, you’ll make me forget my count.”(Kisstober day two: Littering face with kisses)
Relationships: Babe Heffron/Eugene Roe
Series: Mariamegale's Kisstober 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1951780
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25
Collections: Band of Boyfriends Kisstober Challenge 2020





	Welcome home

**Author's Note:**

> content warnings are at the bottom <3

Eugene has been gone for a week.

It hadn’t been planned; one of his cousins had been in an accident, and as was the Roe family tradition, a phone call chain went off. That’s just how it is — when one of them suffers, they band together. His mother had called him on Saturday evening, and he was on the first train south Sunday morning.

He had all but forced Babe to not come with him. While Gene could take his schoolwork with him easily enough, getting Babe unplanned time off from work was difficult if it was just one day due to the flu, let alone however long this would last.

“Keep it for a happy occasion,” Gene had mumbled while Babe kissed him goodbye over and over at four AM that Sunday. “Much rather take you with me for a wedding.”

“If you’re still there this weekend,” Babe told him, hands cupped behind Gene’s head to make sure he didn’t leave quite yet, “I’m coming down there. Not negotiable.”

Pressing their foreheads together for a long moment, Gene had just breathed in their shared space in response to that, trying to carve the memory in stone so that he could take it with him. Babe’s thumbs rubbing over his scalp, his nose bumping against Gene’s, how soft his lips were when he gave Eugene one last, long kiss.

Eugene had left with the memory of Babe’s mouth on his, and the ungodly hour at which he’d gotten on his train had been all the brighter for it.

Four days later, he’d called Babe from the outside of the hospital as he was walking the mandatory distance for smoking. Being able to laugh down the phone and tell him Cletus had woken up, thirsty and disoriented but fine, was like a balm to his soul at that point. Hearing Babe elatedly pass on his warmest of love to Gene’s family, hurried as he were before his manager came at him for using his phone at work, was for his heart.

Eugene comes home that Saturday afternoon, which he guesses means he hasn’t actually been away for a week. Almost, but not quite.

Not that Babe would listen to that argument when deciding how excited to be to have him back; the second Eugene gets the front door open, he hears him come running like a puppy waiting for their human after its first day of school.

There’s also no point in trying to hide his own feelings: As soon as Babe’s figure pops into sight, Gene feels like his whole self just got a hundred pounds lighter. His boyfriend is there immediately, almost skipping the last few steps, pulling Eugene into a crushing hug.

“Welcome home,” Babe says into his shoulder, and Gene swears he can hear the smile on his face.

On both their faces, actually, because Eugene is smiling too as he burrows his face into Babe’s neck and just breathes for a moment. Babe smells like their laundry detergent, like that sweet earthy, umami body wash Ralph had bought them once and they’d immediately gotten hooked to. He smells like their sheets on a lazy morning, like the vanilla scented candles Babe likes and the sandalwood ones that Eugene prefers.

Babe smells like home. Gene had thought it would be the opposite, that when he first hugged his _maman_ on the train station in New Orleans he’d be slapped in the face with just how much like home she’d smell, but no. This is it, the way their apartment smells, the way Babe smells. 

It’s comfort and security, as is Babe’s arms around him, his body warm and firm and safe where they’re pressing themselves together. 

Eugene melts immediately, the whole week of worry and comforting his family and trying to let himself be comforted washing off him in waves for every breath that they take together.

“Welcome home,” Babe whispers again, pulling them apart slightly to press a kiss to Eugene’s right cheek. He says it again, kisses Gene’s left cheek, and again, kissing his nose, moving both his hands to cup Eugene’s jaw to hold his face still. “Welcome home, welcome home, welcome home.”

It makes his heart ache, because it feels like Babe is making up for lost time, and Gene knows exactly why.

The two of them… Well, to use Guarnere’s words, “are so fucking ridiculously sappy I’d let someone run over my leftover leg if it got you to stop.” Personally, Gene prefers the term “affectionate.”

In practice, this means they have a lot of habits when it comes to physical affection. Babe particularly; Eugene is mostly happily going along with it because he loves his boyfriend, and loves being allowed to indulge in that love.

As Babe now systematically kisses Gene’s cheeks, his nose, his forehead and then his nose again, Eugene recognises it as Babe’s usual “welcome home” routine. It makes his chest ache, more than it already did, because he’s missed it. 

Coming home after an emotionally exhausting day, without having Babe walk up to him and give him his five soft kisses, had been tough. Missing it six days in a row had bordered on painful. There were a lot of reasons they’d spent every night on the phone together, Eugene curled up on his aunt’s sofa listening to Babe ramble on about his day and what he was doing.

Now, finally back home and in Babe’s arms, every kiss Gene gets feels like a band-aid. He closes his eyes and lets Babe’s soft, warm lips press against his skin, chipping away at the leftover loneliness and anxiety in Gene’s chest.

But when it’s over and Eugene tilts his jaw up to catch Babe’s lips with his own, Babe responds by tutting at him and kissing his right cheek again.

“What’re you doing?” Gene mumbles at him, frowning a little when Babe kisses his other cheek with soft, warm lips. It’s nice, but he wants those lips on his own, please and thank you. “C’mere.”

“No,” Babe says against the tip of Eugene’s nose. “Not until you get all your kisses.”

“But you already—“ Eugene starts, until the Babe Logic clicks in his head. “Edward— You gonna kiss me twenty-five times?”

Babe doesn’t seem to like the tone of Gene’s voice, because he brings one finger up to flick Gene’s nose in response. “No, Eugene, I’m going to kiss you thirty times. You’ve missed a lot of kisses, and I gotta make up, or what kind of boyfriend would I be? Now shush, you’ll make me forget my count.”

Eugene just groans at him, feeling his energy start to run out. He’s exhausted, but it’s so nice to be home again, and being home includes Babe being his slightly ridiculous self. It’s not that he minds the kisses, he was just kind of hoping to be off his feet at this point.

“Babe,” he says softly, putting his own hands over Babe’s. “I love you, but can we please go sit down while you finish this?”

“Oh my God, Gene,” Babe says immediately, pulling back and taking on of Eugene’s hands in his so fast Gene opens his eyes in pure surprise. “Why didn’t I— you’ve gotta be exhausted, Jesus, come on. Bed, now, you’re lying down.”

He doesn’t open up for discussion, so Gene doesn’t fight, just toes his shoes off hastily and lets himself get pulled into the bedroom. Babe fusses over him the whole way, until Eugene is on his back on the mattress and has a very large about of boyfriend crawling onto his lap. 

Babe leans down over him and Eugene turns his face towards it, but ends up making a frustrated noise when Babe’s lips go to his cheek again instead of his mouth.

“Babe—“

“No, Genie. Welcome home kisses first. Not letting you go without your kisses,” Babe mutters at him, through round three of increasingly frustrating face kisses.

“Please,” Eugene resorts to breathing out, getting his hands on Babe’s knees to gently push their way up his thighs. “Babe, please just kiss me, missed you so much.”

“I am kissing you,” Babe stubbornly tells him, tilting Eugene’s face this way and that to really get access to him. 

He’s moved from kissing Gene on the broad side of his cheeks to the soft skin just under his eyelashes, and it’s slowly driving Eugene insane. The warm air over his skin as Babe breathes, the dry, soft press of his lips over and over. It’s still comforting that little bit of his heart that just quietly yearns to have Babe close, to feel him, but it’s also becoming an increasing reminder of what Gene would prefer to be doing instead.

As Babe works through round four, Gene imagines rolling them over. Gentle and slow, just to get Babe looking up at him with those soft eyes, being able to nose along the line of his jaw, hear Babe sigh as Eugene’s breath ghosts his ear. Pressing down on Babe’s warm body, feeling how well they go together, slotting their mouths together to check that Babe still tastes like he remembers him to.

Eugene wants to press his lips against Babe’s pulse point, feel the beat of his heart there. Close his eyes against it and just revel in the steady reminder that Babe is here, is safe, soft and warm and perfect. 

He moves his hands further up Babe’s legs, to his hips and then his waist, getting fingers in under Babe’s soft shirt to feel him proper. Maybe he wants the roles to be reversed, actually, imagines Babe slotting into his place between Gene’s thighs, warm skin against his, a shallow breath trembling against his ear. 

Babe is starting to have to actually hold Eugene’s head in place, because Gene is trying to chase his mouth as he moves it across his face.

“Stay still,” Babe mumbles before kissing his forehead for the fifth time. “Missed you a lot, Genie, I was so unhappy I couldn’t give you all the kisses when you needed them.”

“Love you,” Gene says. It earns him a harder kiss on his nose, but nothing else. “Please—“

“Shh. Last round now, lovely you. Then you get whatever you want, I promise.”

Eugene don’t remember when he closed his eyes again, but they are now, and he focuses on taking deep breaths as Babe’s mouth moves over his face one last time.

“Love you too,” he breathes against Gene’s right cheek before pressing his lips to the spot. “So, so much,” against the other cheek, and then moving from spot to well-kissed spot. “Love of my life, Genie. Never wanna be away from you ever again. Missed you so much.”

When his lips leave Eugene’s nose for the last time, Gene opens his eyes to look up at him. Babe’s face is soft, and kind, and his thumbs are stroking over Eugene’s cheekbones. His gaze is going between Gene’s eyes, and then down his face until it gets to his mouth, where it lingers for a moment.

“Please, _chérie,_ ” Eugene whispers again, and Babe is moving, both of them closing their eyes as he presses their mouths together.

Whatever he had to feel anxious or sad or longing over disappears in that moment, like Babe’s soft lips have erased all the events of the last week in one touch against Gene’s. Moving one hand to Babe’s face, Eugene immediately opens his mouth of Babe, letting out a sigh when Babe’s tongue moves against his own.

Babe kisses him like it’s a taste testing, pulling back after every move, just far enough to make it a series of lazy, deep kisses instead of one long one. It’s like he’s trying to find the perfect angle, no rush present in either of them, just slow, safe and warm affection.

Eugene considers fulfilling his earlier thought of rolling them over, but finds he quite like staying like this. They’re in no hurry, Babe seemingly not having any intention to stop or move away any time soon, and Eugene wants to savour it for all he has.

After all, Babe does have a point; they have a week’s worth of kisses to make up for. If this is where they start in remedying that, he is not in a place to complain.

He has Babe, close and relaxed and willing, kissing him like it’s a promise made again and again. There is nothing else he could want, or need. Everything is good, just like this.

**Author's Note:**

> CONTENT WARNINGS: Mention of a family member getting into an accident and hospital visits; everything turns out okay.
> 
> Making out on a bed while thinking about some other saucy things one can do on a bed. No explicit language used.
> 
> * * *
> 
> A/N: You know the drill. [Come join the community on discord](https://discord.gg/Vze28xa), or [come say hi on tumblr](mariamegale.tumblr.com), I love you all, thank you so much for reading <3 <3 <3 


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